Widow of ‘The Bicycle Man’ keeps his dream alive

Ann Mathis held a bicycle donation drive Saturday, following in the footsteps of her late husband Moses, who collected bikes for children on Christmas. (WTVD-TV)

Widow of ‘The Bicycle Man’ keeps his dream alive

Ann Mathis held a bicycle donation drive Saturday, following in the footsteps of her late husband Moses, who collected bikes for children on Christmas. (WTVD-TV)

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — The widow of a Fayetteville man known as “The Bicycle Man” is keeping his dream alive.

WTVD-TV reported that Ann Mathis held a bicycle donation drive Saturday, following in the footsteps of her late husband Moses, who collected bikes to give to children for Christmas.

Mathis said it’s a promise she made to her late husband, and a mission she’s committed to following.

Bikes, big and small, arrived for the Wake Forest portion of a drive for donations.

Organizer Ann Mathis smiles when she sees it all.

“Cause some of these people have held these bikes for almost a year, so they can bring them out here to just give to me,” said bike donor Trish Boyd. “So it makes me feel real good!”

Mathis is the widow of Moses Mathis, better known as “the bicycle man.” He gave away bikes every Christmas in Fayetteville before his death last July. His wife continues that tradition.

“I promised Moses I was gonna do this, and I’ve had so much support from the community,” Mathis said.

More than 300 bikes collected before Saturday’s donation day attracted generous people like Trish Floyd.

“We’ve had them in the backyard and I knew of places like this, and I’ve been looking for a place to bring them,” Floyd said, adding that she found out about the event online.

“Well, I saw it on Facebook!” she said.

That makes Mathis happy.

“This is the first year that we really did start using social media!” she said. “We’ve been doing a newsletter as well, now.”

There’s still room on the truck if you still have room in your heart and some bikes to donate, but it you aren’t able to make it out there Saturday for donation day, you get another chance later in the year.
The next drive will be held in Raleigh.

“And then when we get the date and place set up in Raleigh, we’ll give them that time and place and they can come bring it there,” Mathis said.

And help her gather, then refurbish enough bikes to make a lot of kids a really happy at Christmas.